Ongoing U.S Police Brutality and Corruption Discussion Thread

Strategically speaking, declaring war on the cops is not going to solve the problem of unprovoked police violence against black men. Then again, extreme passivity by black men during interactions with the police hasn't solved the problem, either.

If anything is going to get assault rifles banned...

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/17/opinion/sunday/were-helping-deport-kids-to-die.html

this was a powerful piece about the Obama administration's complicity in Mexico's deportation program. basically, they are refusing to give asylum to people who aren't migrants but refugees, fleeing powerful gangs in el salvador and honduras.

i'm not always a big believe in national conversations, but i think America needs to start talking about the moral responsibility we have toward central america. these countries were directly devastated by US policy and not just economically. i don't think anyone here needs the reagan year footnotes

sorry wrong thread

why would we need Reagan-era footnotes when obv he was the GREATEST PRESIDENT EVER

this is the end (maybe) of a tweetstorm from journalist JJ McNab on the baton rouge shooter, who was a sovereign citizen

https://twitter.com/jjmacnab/status/755091929726001152

there's a KC star story linked in there too.

"Note that his given name GAVIN EUGENE LONG is in all capital letters while his "corrected" name Cosmo Ausar Setepenra, is mixed case."

man, jj's tweets = one helluva rabbithole

setep en ra = son of ra

hoooooo boy

*chosen by ra, sorry, not son of

I want to read more jj macnab now

many right-wing tweeters point out Long's involvement w/ Nation of Islam but don't mention his marine background

xpost: she's a good follow on twitter

i didn't know there was a significant black offshoot of the sovcit movement, or black-nationalist uptake of those ideas.

"I'm a sovereign human being, I stand under common law only" - Thread of Freemen

moorish science temple predates sovcit stuff, and actually NOI was an offshoot historically speaking.

that said, in that period the mst wasn't sovcit in ideology, closer to garveyism but without any repatriation stuff

or related to a black offshoot of freemasonry when that was still a prominent "civic society" force

Video Shows Unarmed Black Man Pleading With Arms Raised Before Getting Shot by Police

“I thought it was a mosquito bite, and when it hit me I had my hands in the air, and I’m thinking I just got shot!” Kinsey told WSVN. “And I’m saying, ‘Sir, why did you shoot me?’ and his words to me were, ‘I don’t know.’”

in my hometown too

the cynical part of me wonders how many white technocrats who previously underplayed this as a "problem" will start getting concerned now that the cops are shooting people who take care of their autistic kids

moorish science temple predates sovcit stuff, and actually NOI was an offshoot historically speaking.

^^^

mst/noi have all kinds of things that are weird and imperfect but they also have done a lot of good for people and should not be conflated w/freemen who're a narcissistic cult imo

And I’m saying, ‘Sir, why did you shoot me?’ and his words to me were, ‘I don’t know.’”

reminds me of the officer who shot philando castile desperately screaming "why did he move?" after pulling the trigger (uh, because you asked him for his id). suggests that a lot of cops out there shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a loaded gun.

so what i get from this is that when you militarize the police, they start acting like they're in nam? huh. didn't see that one coming.

Show me some ID! (But without moving your hands, or any other appendage, towards anyplace your ID might reasonably be located!)

It is just enraging and horrific to me that there is an actual existing human mindset that can't see the problem there.

we may be getting to the point where people will opt for scannable neck ID bar codes so they'll no longer have to chance reaching for their wallet

to what extent are officers, generally-speaking, exposed to high-stress situations in training? reminds me of something I read from Malcom Gladwell (I know, I know), which he alludes to here:

MG: I talked for a long time when I was doing "Blink" with a fascinating guy named Gavin deBecker, who runs one of the top personal security agencies in Los Angeles.

Basically, if you're a movie star or a billionaire or the Sultan of Brunei, he provides you with your bodyguard. DeBecker talked a lot about how rigorously he trains his people. If the quality of our coordination and instinctive reactions breaks down when our heart rate gets above 145, he wants to expose his people to stressful situations over and over and over again until they can face them at 130, 110 or 90.

So he fires bullets at people, and does these utterly terrifying exercises involving angry pit bulls. The first and second and third and fourth time you run through one of deBecker's training sessions you basically lose control of your bowels and take off like a scalded cat. By the fifth time, essential bodily functions start to return. By the 10th time, you can function as a normal human being.

shit i get all stressed out and inaccurate when i'm playing a FPS and stuff gets hairy

remind me why we roll our eyes at Gladwell?

iirc he's pro cigarette smoking or something

Well he's a corporate shill...

Perhaps it is because Gladwell strikes the pose of always knowing everything that is important to know about the subject he is addressing and then makes a show of drawing the only possible conclusion. He treats his readers as cattle being driven up a chute into his selected cattle car.

he spreads conclusions not understanding, and he doesn't understand the statistics he's reporting, which is why in his world all effects are large

he's also a plagiarist https://ourbadmedia.wordpress.com/2014/12/11/a-guide-for-journalists-on-how-to-understand-our-gladwell-reporting/

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/28/us/charges-dropped-against-3-remaining-officers-in-freddie-gray-case.html

The prosecutors’ decision to drop the remaining charges was disclosed during a pretrial motion for Officer Garrett Miller, whose trial was scheduled to begin this week. Lawyers from Ms. Mosby’s office announced that the state would not prosecute that case or the two remaining ones — against Sgt. Alicia D. White and against Officer Porter, the first officer to be tried.

There had been little public hint of the decision; Judge Barry Williams of the Baltimore City Circuit Court had imposed a strict gag order on all the lawyers, defendants and witnesses, seeking to tamp down publicity surrounding a death that had sparked violent protests and riots last spring.

A court spokeswoman said Wednesday that the gag order has now been lifted.

to what extent are officers, generally-speaking, exposed to high-stress situations in training?

Such as traffic stops of African American men with babies in the car?!

Sorry if this isn't exactly a valuable contribution to the thread, but every time I see a picture of Sandra Bland's face on social media I get this awful, hair-raising shiver, as though her face were telling me she was murdered. It's totally bullshit and superstitious sounding but I cannot see photos of her without feeling haunted.

bratton out

Police accountability groups want him to leave sooner than potentially end of 2017. Still good news tho.

lol shit I should read the news huh

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/08/mayors-survey-police-shooting-law-enforcement-dallas-214152

A year after America’s mayors declared their concern that “Ferguson could happen to us,” a more multifaceted anxiety over the relationship between police and minority communities has taken hold in the country’s city halls, a new Politico Magazine survey finds.

During one of the most tumultuous summers in urban politics, ignited by the murder of eight police officers after more controversial police shootings of black men, more than half of mayors say they are very worried about the safety of their black citizens but nearly three-quarters of mayors say they now fear for their officers’ lives as well.

this is a great piece -
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/08/18/black-lives-and-the-police/

it's unusual to read a piece like this in 2016, with no explicit thesis or argument, there is no hot take. it's more of a documentation or testimony. and to me it reads powerfully for that reason, it feels like real reporting

The DOJ report on Baltimore is out. Haven't read it yet, but it's supposed to be pretty damning.

https://cdn3.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/6915773/DOJ_Baltimore_Police_Department.0.pdf

synopsis: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/federal-probe-finds-baltimore-police-dept-racially-discriminated-in-practices-that-target-blacks/2016/08/09/51216804-5e8a-11e6-af8e-54aa2e849447_story.html

https://twitter.com/FOP3/status/763481919413641216

bpd union response - they call for the immediate elimination of the comstat program

http://www.cbs58.com/story/32754977/governor-activates-national-guard-in-milwaukee

Not sure if this is the right thread, but, a spot of good news: Justice Department Plans to Stop Using Private Prisons.

a tiny sliver of all prisons but still great news

prison industrial complex

(as probably the most relevant thread)

oh good call. crossposting.

yeah, tiny sliver - but still hopefully will mean very real, material benefit to the prisoners involved. and maybe just maybe set some kind of example that states might pick up on, i dunno.